Videos

Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo speaks about how literature is striving to break the limits of expression in Cuba, why Cuba’s new writers refuse to be a homogenized group, and how he selected the 16 writers in the new anthology Generation Zero.

In this segment of The Writer’s Block, David Harris-Gershon discusses his writing process, the consequences he faced for publishing his memoir, What Do You Buy the Children of the Terrorist Who Tried to Kill Your Wife?, and writer’s responsibilities towards society.

Writers Tarik Günersel, Pinar Selek, Necati Abay, and Cüneyt Ayral talk via Google Hangout about risking imprisonment for writing against the regime, the pattern of repression against opposition writers, the government’s crackdown on free press, and the condition of writing in exile.

Over the past year, dozens of journalists have been fired as a result of government pressure. Turkey’s government is improperly using its leverage over media to limit public debate about government actions and punish journalists who dispute government claims, concludes a new Freedom House report.

In this interview Jason Q. Ng discusses the place that the social media site Sina Weibo has in Chinese culture, the origins of the Great Firewall and its censorship office, and why certain terms have been blocked on Weibo. Ng is author of Blocked on Weibo.

In this video, filmed in Cuba by Silvia Corbelle Batista and edited in Pittsburgh by Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo, five of the writers from Generation Zero: An Anthology of New Cuban Fiction discuss the stylistic characteristics and mission of Generation Zero.

In this edition of The Writer’s Block we round up the answers of eight different writers to the question ‘What is your least favorite interview question?’ Included in this video are Ivo Victoria, Sridala Swami, Chris Abani, Cornelius Eady, Toi Derricotte.

Liu Xia, a poet and wife of imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Liu Xiaobo, has been under house arrest since October 2010. In this video, secretly recorded in December, Liu reads two of her new works.

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About Sampsonia Way

Sampsonia Way is an online magazine sponsored by City of Asylum/Pittsburgh that seeks to protect and advocate for writers who may be endangered, to educate the public about threats to writers and literary expression, and to create a community in which endangered writers thrive and literary culture is a valued part of life.